Middle East's Best Banks

Emirates NBD Capital is a deal machine in Dubai and beyond. Among the standout transactions over the awards period were a Dh2 billion ($545 million) capital-raising for Dubai Asset Management, completed in July 2019, and the $500 million refinancing of a debut sukuk into a term loan by Dubai Aviation Corporation, better known as the budget airline flydubai.

Emirates NBD is not simply a colossus in Dubai, it is also a power-player across the region.

Emirates NBD is not simply a colossus in Dubai, it is also a power-player across the region.

National Bank of Bahrain is a bank on the rise. Under chief executive Jean-Christophe Durand, it has been transformed from a safe, middle-of-the-road lender into a digital leader. Technological change and innovation is now at the heart of everything National Bank of Bahrain does.

The Middle East has a lot of very well-run banks these days. Mergers have made the big ones bigger, but a desire to invest in digital for consumers and corporates, and to roll out high-end wealth management services, has made them better too.

The Middle East has a lot of very well-run banks these days. Mergers have made the big ones bigger, but a desire to invest in digital for consumers and corporates, and to roll out high-end wealth management services, has made them better too.

Qatar National Bank, the country’s largest lender by assets, is the standout winner of this award. The bank is a digital leader, thanks to its long-term investment in technology and innovation, but its wealth management division, QNB Private, has become a trusted financial ally of wealthy families in Qatar and beyond.

It is now commonplace for banks to reel off a list of CSR accomplishments, but it is hard to imagine any of them doing more than Banque Misr, which has made an impressive, wide-ranging commitment to CSR.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which aims to transform a creaky economy that is overly dependent on oil revenues to one driven by lithe and innovative businesses run by a new generation of entrepreneurs. In March 2020, the government said it would extend SR50 billion ($13.3 billion) in financial aid to help SMEs weather the pandemic.